Christmas (Eve and Day)

As usual, I’ve taken far too many pictures of Tennyson during our week in Chicago. So I’m going to split the visit into a few posts. And since Christmas was kind of the most exciting part of the visit (not to mention the whole reason for the visit), I thought it’d be appropriate to tell you about our Christmas activities first.
Christmas Eve:
Christmas Eve was unseasonably warm. We actually spent the afternoon on a walk and at the park. It was strange for Christmas Eve, but it was kind of nice.
Then for dinner, we went to a family in my parent’s ward. We ate Mexican food and discovered Tennyson has a love for taquitos. We realized this when he finished the ones I had gotten for him and proceeded to steal them off of my sister’s plate.
Then we played the chimes. Tennyson’s note played through pretty much the whole song. Until he started stabbing people with the nail we were using as a stick to chime with. That’s when his chime career ended.

We finished the night with a pinata. Well, that’s not entirely true. We actually finished the night by driving around looking at Christmas lights and listening to a 1930s radio recording of A Christmas Carol but I don’t have any pictures of that. So, for all you know, we finished the night with a pinata.
Tennyson was very selective in his loot picking. He only picked up the kit kat bars. Baby girl appreciated this. I think they’ll get along.

Christmas Morning:
I won’t lie, I was a little bummed when I found out we’d be going to church at 9am on Christmas morning. Sometimes I feel like 10am is too early. But then Christmas morning was so excited that I ended up waking up early anyway, so we actually did a lot before our 9am church.
Like stockings.
And Tennyson had a few unwrapped presents under the tree. Because Santa wanted him to have a few to play with while others were doing gifts (and because the elves never did figure out how to wrap a hat, a grocery cart, and a ball).
 
Church ended up being really nice.
And then it was time for presents.
Tennyson really made out well this year. And he had a lot more fun with the wrapping paper this year than last year. He’s got the whole unwrapping thing down.
Mike and I had a good Christmas, too. I surprised Mike with a kindle and he got me some boots that I absolutely love. Also, I got the last three seasons of Friends that I needed. I’ve been working for five black Fridays now to get all ten seasons of the show, and this year, my collection was completed. Yay!

My mom made some prime rib for dinner which was awesome. And Mike brought his tradition of Christmas poppers to the table. We all got to wear our hats during dinner and play with our prizes afterwards.

I really love Christmas. I think having a little kid around makes Christmas just that much more magical.
And I’ll post more about our visit with family later.